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The United States will discuss agricultural tariff concessions during the next round of the Doha global trade talks, it was revealed by visiting deputy US trade representative Peter Allgeier on Wednesday in Beijing.

 

"We stand ready to significantly reduce our agricultural subsidies and tariffs so long as other countries who surpass our tariffs and subsidies, such as the European Union (EU), do the same," said Allgeier, also the US Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.

 

"Large trading countries must make active contribution to the talks and lead the way on concessions," he said. "Agriculture is probably the most difficult aspect of the Doha negotiations."

 

On a four-day visit to China, Allgeier is engaging his Chinese counterparts in seeking consensus to push forward the Doha talks.

 

During the visit, Allgeier met with Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun among other agencies and officials.

 

"We talked about the steps we are willing to take to open our own markets since other countries expect major trading countries, such as the US and China, to show the way in contributing to the negotiations," Allgeier said.

 

The Doha Round of the WTO talks ended last July with a split between developed and developing nations over whether the richer nations should continue giving subsidies to their farmers.  

 

China's Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai on Monday urged both the United States and Europe to slash their domestic agriculture subsidies, saying that their high agricultural subsidies and their inaction in reducing them posed the major threat to the Doha Round of talks.

 

Allgeier added that what remained was to see "how much more is the EU prepared to do in comparison with the US."

 

According to Allgeier, WTO members have agreed to abide by a specific formula, called the Swiss formula, by which countries with higher tariffs will make a larger cut while those with lower tariffs will bear a smaller cut.

 

As compared to other countries, such as those seen in large developing countries such as India and Brazil, both China and the United States have comparatively lower tariffs, which Allgeier gave as a reason why "China and the US share a common interest in reducing these tariffs."

 

The Doha Round of talks began in 2001, vying to reduce poverty by creating fairer global trade conditions. However, the negotiations floundered in July 2006 over seemingly irremediable differences between major WTO members over agricultural trade and industrial market access.

 

"We are already negotiating very intensively and we hope to complete the Doha Round by the end of this year," Allgeier said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)